Cuppacafe

Have you ever noticed that since everyone now has a digital camera in their cell phone UFO sightings hav dropped to almost nil?

Oh yeah, why is it that Aliens never land in New York or Tokyo (except in movies), but always pick searchlight, NV, or Cowtip, OH?

Yeah, me too.

The Perfessor

Well, we all know what a media whore that Sarah Palin is, and while none of us like negative publicity, she is especially sensitive to it (especially if she was the one who caused the bad press). Well, you have to know that these days she is apparently in something of a rage because there’s plenty of bad press swirling around her in the news these days.

Not is there the whole reading off her hand thing, and the not Gibbs-smacking Rush Limbaugh over his use of the "R" word. Well on Sunday it seems as if she wants the President to invade Iran.

“Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do,” Palin told Fox News’ Chris Wallace Sunday. “That changes the dynamics in what we can assume is going to happen between now and three years.”

Yeah, I’m so totally gonna vote for this one.

Not!

Oh yeah, and then there is also this.

Arianna appeared on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" Friday and explained that Sarah Palin's refusal to call out Rush Limbaugh for his use of the word "retard" proves that she is afraid that offending the radio host and arbiter of the conservative movement could hurt her image.

Earlier this week, Palin called for Rahm Emanuel to be fired after he used the same word.

Arianna argued that Palin's decision to go after Emanuel, but not Limbaugh is all part of Palin's "cost-benefit analysis" operating procedure:

The Perfessor

In the past we've spoken about some over-the-top, extra-gung-ho folks who feel that it is necessary to "take it (way past) the limit" as it were.

While we shouldn't be surprised by the Zero Tolerance polices of some folk, we constantly are surprised by how — well extra stupid they play out in the real world. Well, apparently it has happened again.

On Monday, a teacher at Junior High School 190 in Queens caught 12-year-old Alexa Gonzalez doodling on her desk with a lime green magic marker. Instead of just erasing it, the school called police and the girl was walked out in handcuffs.

A day later, Principal Evelyn Mastroianni of Public School 52 on Staten Island nearly suspended 9-year-old Patrick Timoney for playing with an action figure who had a 2-inch gun.

Yep, you read that correctly, it was a 2" gun. As a matter of fact, it was a very tiny gun that is held by a very tiny Lego figure, so there is absolutely no way that this could be considered a working gun, even by the mos stringent of protocols. Yet still, the kid was hauled down to the Principal's office.

On another planet, in another lifetime, or perhaps as an SNL sketch all of this could be considered hilarious, except for the fact that not only is little Alexa throwing up every day, but little Patrick — an "A" student, in math no less — simply didn't want to go back to school. Now who's the asshat?

This type of high-minded moralizing, and out of control PC-fueled attempt to protect us from ourselves, is simply beyond stupid. I have to know where these teachers and principals are when the schoolyard bully is stuffing geeks into lockers and boosting kids' lunch money.

The Perfessor

I don't know if this story made the news where you folk are (Walt not withstanding), but it was certainly a big deal here in CT.

MIDDLETOWN, Conn.—An explosion rocked a natural-gas power plant Sunday in Middletown, Conn., sending earthquake-like shock waves miles away. At least five people were killed, 12 were injured and an undetermined number of people were missing, authorities said.

A state official who said he was briefed by emergency personnel said the toll was unlikely to rise significantly. The official said the gas explosion was caused by a "flame device'' that a victim's son had been told was a propane heater.

To be sure, Middletown is essentially halfway across the state from me, but, well, it was close enough (my cousin owns a bar in that town and some of my friends live in that area), so yea, it's close enough. Interestingly enough. I found out about it when Walt (all the way from TX) IMed me to ask if I was OK. (Yep, we DO live in a global village, as he heard about it before me). Once I assured him that I was fine, I checked up on the folks that I knew, and then passed info along to others.

At 11:25 a.m., the explosion ripped through the Kleen Energy Systems LLC natural-gas power plant being built here in a sparse industrial area along the bank of the Connecticut River. Four pipefitters who were inside the main generator building were killed immediately, according to the state official. Emergency rescue teams, some with rescue dogs, descended on the scene and were airlifting injured workers by helicopter to nearby hospitals.

Yeah, no jokes this time out, as this is sort of a big deal around here.

The Perfessor

OK, OK, I understand that there are some of you who watch the Superbowl because there is some sort of sporting event going on there. However, as regular readers know, there are some of us who are more interested in the commercials than the game that keeps interrupting them.

Well, here are the the good, the bad, and the ugly spots that ran yesterday.

You can watch to your heart's content, and then (if you choose) even vote on which was the best and worse.

Enjoy.

The Perfessor

In case you missed it, here's Letterman's commercial for the Super Bowl:

Show me the video! »

YouTube link

And yes, it was all Dave's idea. The best way to sneak Leno and Oprah into the Ed Sullivan Theatre (Letterman's place) was to do it during a taping of Dave's show this past Tuesday. Leno wore a hoodie and a cheesy mustache to sneak in unnoticed. Or was that Oprah who wore the mustache? Anyway, this was the most memorable Super Bowl moment for me outside of Manning getting intercepted.

In honor of today being Superbowl Sunday, we thought we'd present the following vid.

Yeah, we laughed too.

The Perfessor

And now from the files of "only Democrats are bad," Alaska's former Governatrix is leading a campaign to stop the public use of the "R" word; that is to say the derogatory usage of the word "retard," only it apparently collided with her campaign to maintain her popularity with conservatives today, with very confusing results.

A Palin spokeswoman seemed to back away from earlier criticism of conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. Yesterday, when asked for comment on Limbaugh's use of the "r" word in a recent broadcast, Palin spokeswoman told Greg Sargent of the Washington Post, "Governor Palin believes crude and demeaning name-calling at the expense of others is disrespectful." Today, Stapleton claims the statement was meant generally and she was not specifically referring to Limbaugh. Still, she declined to say that Palin believes Limbaugh's statements were acceptable. Sargent reprinted the email he sent Stapleton in which he specifically asked about Limbaugh's statement.

I mean, you can spin this any way you want to, but here again we have yet another example of Republicans saying one thing and doing another. I'm telling you that this girl is a train wreck waiting to happen.

The Perfessor

Yeah, Yeah, we love Gibbs-smacking the former Alaskan Governatrix around, but please be aware, that she makes such an easy target of her self. Take this (so called) circle jerk...er contrived interview-cum-lovefest with a seriously smitten interviewer and an adoring brain-dead audience. Still with (apparently) all the prep time in the world, Palin, still couldn’t seem to keep those silly old facts straight in her head, and to needed a cheat-sheet just to get through the event.

Just watch her left hand.

Did you see it? take a second look, this time in bullet-time, er, slow-mo.

and now, for the folks in the cheap seats, here she is looking down.

and now for what she seemed to be looking at on her hand.

And this just a couple of days after she criticized President Obama for his use of a teleprompter. Oh isn’t the use of cameras (by the liberal media) such a problem for this girl?

The Perfessor

A while back I told you that I acquired a (free) pound of coffee from Dunkin' Donuts by donating a pint of my blood to the American Red Cross, well, I picked up the coffee (finally) and added it to my stash of ready-to-be-ground coffee beans.

This pint puts me on the plus-side of 15 gallons that I've donated. I try to go every two months, and by now, know most of the nurses at the donation center where I usually donate.

On an entirely different matter, I know that tomorrow is Superbowl Sunday, but just the other day I (finally) received a special Union Mets pin of the new Shea...er Citi Field. No, I'm not in a union, but my brother, Ron, is, (abnd is a HUGE Mets fan), and he pointed me in the direction of the pin (which was free for the asking).

Well, I requested the pin back during baseball season, and just received it.

Cool, eh?

Well, I'm off to run some errands with the ball and...er...wifie, so I'll be back later.

The Perfessor

A winter storm continued its blizzard rage in some parts of the Mid-Atlantic region on Saturday morning, dumping nearly two feet of wet, heavy snow that cut power to about 200,000 residents, caused the roof of a private jet hangar to collapse at Washington Dulles International Airport and forced the nation’s capital into quiet hibernation.

Good luck east coast!

How many times have I told you not to build snow forts on the roof?

Yesterday, we gave you the first two parts of this interview, here is part three.

Here is what I find interesting about this interview:

1) That O'Reilly (a newsman?) feels that the opinion of a comedian (and fake newsman) is somehow relevant.
2) That Stewart managed to elicit a laugh from a member of the crew.
3) Do you notice that O'Reilly seems more interested in asking questions than in actually getting answers.

Still, in a throw down between these two men, I'm still on Jon's side. He informs me and makes me laugh; O'Reilly just frightens me. (If you want to see the entire interview you can do that too.)

The Perfessor

I will sometimes watch the NBC Universal sports channel, and when the USA ski champ Lindsey Vonn was featured, I knew this was coming.

And so it has

Does this ski suit make my butt look big?

And I knew this was coming, too

Vonn is first a GREAT athlete, but she also represents norm of feminine attractiveness. The combination of athleticism and attractiveness make Vonn the likely poster girl of the US Olympic Team, and the media hasn't disappointed in constructed her as such.

Not to be left out, Sports Illustrated is featuring Vonn on their Feb. 8, 2010 cover. For those of you who follow SI Covers, know that female athletes are RARELY featured on the cover.

Over the last 60 years researchers have shown that about 4% of all SI covers have portrayed women.

When females are featured on the cover of SI, they are more likely than not to be in sexualized poses and not in action-and the most recent Vonn cover is no exception.

The link to the above quote is on a site http://www.womentalksports.com that is down because it got slammed by publicity after making the comment.

Yep, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart went on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor as the pundit and comedian squared off as they talked about how each person’s show handles the news and the Obama Presidency. They are (apparently) slated to have another go-round today, (which I’m sure we’ll cover), but in the mean time, Here’s what went down yesterday.

First up was the way each of them treat the President.

Part two has O’Reilly comparing the slant of both of their shows.

What I always feel is not just funny, but friggin’ hilarious is that — for some reason — newscasters (especially from the right) seem to want to compare themselves with Stewart (note O’Reilly‘s insistence that Fox is considered trustworthy but astounded that Stewart has any sort of influence over his own audience), all the while seeming to forget that Stewart is a not a newscaster, but a comedian. (Something that Stewart always likes to remind people that he is a fake newscaster.)

Sure he is going to have influence, just as George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, and hundreds of other politically-skewed comedians have over their audience. Hey, ever see an actor or a rock star endorse their pet cause du jour or want you to get all worked up over whatever it is that has captured their ADD-fueled attention span.

Yeah, I watch Stewart (and Colbert) over “real” news, but I not only know the difference, but I prefer the slightly askew view of current events of these twin shows over the doom-and-gloom of “actual” news.

So there.

The Perfessor

Hey there kids, are you an Apple fan? do you own a Toyota Prius? Has your car been recalled? If so then you are going to love this! it seems that Apple’s co-founder, Steve Wozniak, recently suggested that Toyota’s troubles with a defective accelerator pedal may have more to do with software, rather than mechanical problems. This apparently occurred after his Prius sped up while in cruise-control mode.

"Since my foot never touches the pedal," Wozniak told ABC News, the problem "cannot be a sticky accelerator pedal.... There might be some bad software in there."

He said the problem in his Prius might be related to the random acceleration issue that has forced Toyota into a massive recall of eight million vehicles worldwide and a halt to US sales and production of eight affected models.

Interestingly enough, Woz unsuccessfully tried to get the attention of both Toyota and US authorities months ago, when his own acceleration problems cropped up while his 2010 Prius was in cruise control. Well, thanks to recent interviews Woz granted to the media attention this week, Toyota has (finally) responded to him by offering to borrow his car for a week to diagnose the problem (as reported by The Los Angeles Times).

Wozniak told ABC his acceleration problem in his Prius can be brought under control by braking and by a radar system that regulates distance from other cars by slowing it down.

He also spoke to CNN about his car troubles, stressing that "I love this car" and downplaying his earlier comments to ABC about a possible broad Toyota software problem.

"It's more like a radio button that doesn't work all the time. The car will start to accelerate in cruise control. You can hit the brake to stop it," Wozniak told CNN.

Good thing the Toyota’s internal software isn’t designed by Microsoft, eh?

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